BOSTON: A nationwide campaign to get more Muslim Americans involved in local politics is being launched by a Massachusetts nonprofit. Jetpac Inc. is focused on training Muslim Americans how to leverage social media, data analysis and other critical political tools to build winning campaigns for city council, school committee and other down ballot races.

The goal is to build stronger, more sophisticated grass-roots political organisations with an eye toward the 2018 elections, according to Shaun Kennedy, Jetpac Inc.’s executive director.

“The community as a whole is about 50 years behind in terms of organising,” said Kennedy, who is not Muslim. “The younger generation is trying to step up. The older generation just tried to fly under the radar. They didn’t want to be part of the political conversation. Unfortunately they are now, whether they like it or not.”

Roughly 3.3 million Muslims were living in the US in 2015, representing about one per cent of the population, according to estimates from Pew Research Center.

But Muslims hold few notable elected offices. There are currently two Muslim members of Congress Minnesota Democratic Representative Keith Ellison and Indiana Democratic Representative Andre Carson and just a handful holding local offices in California, Michigan, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2017